North Korea’s Drones, Anthropic’s Nuclear Test, and Xi Jinping on AI Safety

North Korea is developing its drone programs. This week, North Korean state media published images of a drone test. After the test, Kim Jong Un ordered mass-production of self-detonating explosive drones.

Anthropic is testing if their AI models would give away sensitive information on how to make a nuclear bomb.

But first, at the G-20 Summit in Brazil, China’s President Xi Jinping urged the world to make sure AI is safe for all countries:

The Big Story

North Korea’s Drones and Possible Tech Exchange with Russia

“The US, Japan, and South Korea will never get away from the responsibility as the culprits of destroying the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and the region,” Kim Jong Un said last week after a drone test demonstration.

Images published by the North Korean state media showed a drone nosediving into a BMW sedan and an X-wing drone, similar built to a Russian model, catapulted into an armoured tank.

Kim ordered his country to quickly start mass-producing self-detonating explosive drones, calling their development an essential requirement.

Kim also vowed to bolster North Korea’s capabilities “without limit” to counter the threats posed by the security partnership between the US and its allies.

Last week on Tuesday, the US State Department said that 10,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to Russia and have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces in the Kursk region, where Ukraine’s three-month military incursion into Russian territory has stalled.

Last month, South Korea’s defence minister last month expressed concern that Pyongyang is “very likely to ask” Moscow for advanced technology related to nuclear weapons in exchange for deploying troops to Ukraine.

Kim and Putin have been building a stronger collaboration since last year. North Korea is sending munitions, missiles and troops to aid Putin’s war with Ukraine. Moscow can offer weapons know-how that Pyongyang lacks. The relationship has extended to drones. In August, the South Korean military said it was analysing whether North Korea may have modified attack drones that Putin gifted last year to Kim.

Thursday’s drone test came after North Korea on Tuesday ratified a mutual defence treaty with Russia in which the two countries pledged to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event the other is attacked.

Anthropic Testing AI for Nuclear Bomb Recipes

Anthropic is working with the Department of Energy’s nuclear specialists to ensure that its models do not help people make weapons.

Anthropic believes this is the first time a frontier model has been used in a top-secret environment, and it hopes it will pave the way for similar partnerships with other government agencies.

The DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration has been testing Claude 3 Sonnet since April to ensure the model does not share potentially dangerous information about nuclear energy.

Due to the sensitive nature of the testing, Anthropic has not disclosed the findings of the tests.

“While U.S. industry leads in frontier model development, the federal government has unique expertise needed to evaluate AI systems for certain national security risks,” Anthropic national security policy lead Marina Favaro said in a statement.

In August, both Anthropic and OpenAI signed agreements with the AI Safety Institute to test their models for national security risks before they were released publicly.

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